The Denver Broncos made the best free agent signing in the history of the NFL when they signed Peyton Manning back during the 2012 offseason. In that four-year stretch, Manning set NFL records and helped the Broncos win Super Bowl 50, while also winning the NFL MVP during the 2013 campaign.
There aren't many stretches in the history of the NFL that have more success than the 2012-2015 Broncos, but everyone knew that Manning was only there for a short period of time, so the Broncos had to look to the NFL Draft to find a long-term replacement.
And unfortunately, not only did they not do this in the 2016 NFL Draft, the first after Manning retired, but the pick turned out to be one of the worst in the history of the NFL, and still makes fans wonder 'what if' nearly 10 years later.
The Denver Broncos messed up by taking Paxton Lynch in the 2016 NFL Draft
Kristopher Knox talked about why Paxton Lynch is the worst Broncos draft pick this century, and in his exercise, the Broncos 'new' pick here was Dak Prescott, who fell into the fourth round:
"Original Pick: QB Paxton Lynch at No. 26 overall (2016)
New Pick: QB Dak Prescott (No. 135 overall by the Dallas Cowboys)
The Denver Broncos won the Super Bowl with Peyton Manning at quarterback in the 2015 season. However, Manning retired following the win, and Denver entered the 2016 draft needing a long-term answer behind center.
Ironically, the Broncos and Cowboys both tried to make a move up to select Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch. Denver won the bidding war, sending the 31st pick and a third-rounder to the Seattle Seahawks in exchange for the 26th pick and the chance to draft Lynch.
The move was a bust for the Broncos. Lynch started just four games over two seasons in Denver, and he never appeared in a regular-season game after his release.
Meanwhile, Dallas stumbled into Dak Prescott in the fourth round. The four-time Pro Bowler remains the Cowboys' franchise quarterback in 2026 and would be an easy choice for Denver in a re-draft."
Most Broncos fans do remember the situation with the Dallas Cowboys, Broncos, Lynch, and Prescott. Dallas couldn't move up to take Lynch, so they had to 'settle' for Prescott much later on in the draft.
Roughly one month before the draft, though, Prescott got in trouble with the law, so that could have been the reason why he fell about two rounds before he was likely going to be taken. Had the Broncos gotten Prescott and not Lynch, we'd likely still be talking about the current Cowboys quarterback being the starting passer in Denver.
And had the Cowboys ended up with Lynch, they could have endured the years of quarterback dysfunction that Denver dealt with. It really all started with Lynch, as the Broncos then proceeded to go through guys like Trevor Siemian, Case Keenum, Joe Flacco, Drew Lock, Teddy Bridgewater, and other forgettable passers before landing on Bo Nix.
At the end of the day, given where the Broncos are right now, the Lynch era is 'whatever' at this point. It happened, and it took a while for the Broncos to rebound, but the franchise did.
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